2010 Sep 27, Update: The latest Ubuntu 10.10 Beta did not pop up any low disk space warning for my offline upgrade. Thinking that it's safe, I went ahead but ran into many errors. However, between following the hints on Ubuntu's setup error messages and me checking the Synaptic Package Manager, I managed to find out what was going on. Ubuntu detected and automatically placed all the files that did not install correctly onto the Synaptic Package Manager for me to reget. ;) Not that I haven't observed this before; just thought I'll describe this in detail this time round. ;)

2010 Jul 15, Update: I managed to upgrade my Ubuntu 10.04 to Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat using the same old instructions on this guide. I am not recommending 10.10 beta for the time being; I upgraded it on a spare PC and don't see much of a difference. Can't see any new UI features. Better to stick to current stable version. ;)

2010 Jul, Update: Will also work for upgrade to 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat), currently
at Alpha; as commented by a reader below.

2010 Apr, Update: Article updated with Ubuntu 10.04 contents; and will work for Ubuntu upgrade from 9.10 to 10.04 (Beta) "Lucid Lynx" and other prior versions. :)

Ubuntu Offline Upgrade 10.04 to 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat)

Basically, an offline upgrade means doing an Ubuntu CD upgrade, rather
than direct from within Ubuntu itself using the Update Manager. You can also use this offline upgrade method to upgrade your WUBI (Ubuntu in Windows)
installation, and Ubuntu Alpha, Beta, or Release Candidate (RC) versions.

This article shows you how to do an offline cdrom update of your Ubuntu from version 10.04 ("Lucid Lynx") to 10.10 (aka "Maverick Meerkat") and is meant for people whose PC to-be-upgraded has a SLOW internet connection. Ubuntu ver 10.10 was released on the 10th of October, 2010. For those of you who are not aware of this, the 10 in 10.04 refers to year 2010 and the 04 - month 04. Hence, 10.10 equals Year 2010 Month 10.

Preparation:

Make sure that your current Ubuntu distribution is up-to-date prior to doing the upgrading (-you must have all the latest available updates for your version) as you will get messages prompting you to connect to the internet for updating if it is not up-to-date.

Note: This means that if the PC to be upgraded has NO internet connection, this is not the solution for you. Either start afresh with a new Ubuntu or Ubuntu WUBI (Ubuntu Windows install) or search Google for "Ubuntu no internet upgrade".

Have at least 800MB space available in your Ubuntu file system

Don't be lazy! Do some reading on the latest release notes or at least skim through them. ;)

Please note that you CANNOT jump versions when doing an upgrade. As long as your version is 8.04 and above, you should be able to follow this guide to upgrade to the latest and greatest version of Ubuntu. Just make sure that you upgrade incrementally this way: 8.04 to 8.10, 8.10 to 9.04, 9.04 to 9.10, 9.10 to 10.04, 10.04 to 10.10, 10.10 to 11.04 Natty Narwhal (when available). Or put in another way: Upgrade Ubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04) to Intrepid Ibex to Jaunty Jackalope to Karmic Koala to Lucid Lynx to Maverick Meerkat to Natty Narwhal . No jumps! If you're too far behind, it's better to just get the latest CD and install from scratch. Why is that? As you can see from the simple upgrade path above, assuming that 1 CD is 700 MB, you will have to download at least 2800 MB of files to upgrade this way!

Using a previous incarnation of Ubuntu some time back, my laptop was still running 8.10, what I did was to upgrade to 9.04 from within 8.10 in anticipation of upgrading to 9.10.But, having upgraded to 9.04, I found the downloading time for the live upgrade was too long - that's when I chose to do an offline upgrade for 9.10 - and hence writing this hub to document my experience.

(Continued below after the installation pictures ...)

Ubuntu 10.10 Updating: Visual Guide

Just In: (New) Ubuntu 10.10 Upgrade. Note: Pics below showing tried and tested upgrade method on 10.04 version of Ubuntu, works the same way with 10.10.

Keying in the sudo mount command and path to the ISO file in the terminal

Do you want to start the upgrade?

Getting new packages - "Upgrading Ubuntu to version 10.04 LTS"

Installing the upgrades: just starting

Installing the upgrades: 2 mins remaining (Is this going to work?)

Whoa! Progress! The new desktop background is a NEW shade of brown. :D (This was from Beta 1, no longer brown since beta 2)

I really don't mind brown if it comes with nice foreground art as in this picture

DO NOT get the Desktop version. What you are looking for is an ISO file with "ALTERNATE" in its name - most likely - "ubuntu-10.10-alternate-i386.iso".If possible, and ONLY IF you know how to, please reduce stress on Ubuntu's servers by downloading the torrent file which is at the bottom of the page.

2. Burn the CD

OR If you hate CDs, like me ... ;)

Just mount the iso file.Go to a terminal (ie command prompt) and type:

sudo mount -o loop ~/Desktop/ubuntu-10.10-alternate-i386.iso /cdrom

Example: My iso file was saved to E: drive in Windows and I had to "go up" using Ubuntu's windows explorer equivalent to find out the path.The command I used was this: "sudo mount -o loop /media/disk/Ubuntu/ubuntu-10.10-alternate-i386.iso /cdrom".

Note: The above refers to an Ubuntu upgrade without a CD or CDROM,
where you make use of the downloaded Alternate CD image to do an ISO Ubuntu
upgrade, direct from a hard drive.

Tip: If you run into low space error, bring up a terminal and run the following commands to clean junk files fr prev upgrade or updates:

sudo apt-get cleansudo apt-get autocleansudo apt-get remove

3. You will see a pop-up window that says: "A distribution volume with software packages has been detected"Click as per instructions on the screen. Updating will still take some time -less than 1 hr for me - but still less time than what it says on the window that does the updating.

If you cannot find any upgrade dialog, try holding ALT and press F2, then type this on the Run window: gksu "sh /cdrom/cdromupgrade"ORkdesudo "sh /cdrom/cdromupgrade" (in Kubuntu only)

TIP: When I started this article (using Ubuntu 9.04), cdrom and cdrom0 pointed to the same device, also the cdrom location was in "/media/cdrom" instead of in "/cdrom" now. Keep this in mind if you find that this is not working for you one day; check that your cdrom is actually located at "/cdrom" in Nautilus. If not, modify the cdrom path accordingly.

4. Done! And enjoy your new Ubuntu. :)It's good to have it as a FREE maintenance OS, living side-by-side on the same partition with Windows. I have it just in case Windows decided to die on me but find myself using it more and more. ;)

Poll: Do you prefer more or less pictures?

Are there enough pictures in this hub?

Yes

No

Too many! I could do without the sexy one. After all I am only a minor. :D

Post-Upgrade

In the previous 2 versions, it is not uncommon to find that after upgrading, you run into no audio or sound problems, so immediately after updating, check to see whether you have sound, and whether some problematic drivers still works.

IF you run into upgrade errors, DO NOTpanic! Just follow any instructions that may appear on your screen. Most likely, Ubuntu will be know if any package did not install correctly and have a Warning icon on the taskbar for you to click on. If you are impatient, go to the Synaptic Package Manager, under Preferences. You should be able to find these packages under "Broken Install" or something similiar sounding.

Now, if I am making an offline upgrade, why is it downloading files from the internet??!

-First I mounted the iso file - without wasting a CD- but no dialog came up, so I did like you said

"if you cannot find any upgrade dialog, try holding ALT and press F2, then type this on the Run window:

gksu "sh /cdrom/cdromupgrade"

then it asked me whether I want to download the new updates and I chose no, so it started the upgrade, but when it came to getting new packages, it started downloading "fetcing files" from the internet, and when I closed the internet connection it gave me an error.

-Then I just burned the file on a CD and the dialog did show up this time and I went through the same steps as before, when it came to "Getting new packages", it started fetching from the CD (I could hear the sound, and there was no download speed shown) - so far so good

when it reached "fetching file 890 of 1460, the noise stopped and it started downloading from the internet at a very low download speed:(

Right now it's still downloading! so what should I do?

AUTHOR

Dense

8 years agofrom somewhere in a concrete jungle, hugging a green plastic tree, and wondering what happened

I have this problem recently too. Don't know why there is no setting to make it stick, but my workaround is to copy the cdrom install path, and put it in a text file in Ubuntu's install folder (or anywhere you can easily open). That way, if it asks again, I'll just copy and paste. Or I'd just ignore it. It should be safe to do so. :)

bianca

8 years ago

Which forces me to issue the command you explained in the article to mount the iso file. My question is: Is there away to avoid this?

Thank you very much.

drexlar

8 years ago

The Ubuntu 10.10 offline upgrade went smoothly. Thank you. However, each time I run the Update Manager the following message appears:

Please insert the above CD/DVD into the drive '/cdrom/' to install software packages from it.

Which forces me to issue the command you explained in the article to mount the iso file. My question is: Is there away to avoid this?

Thank you very much.

shaqat veeerdgora

8 years ago

Nice work.You actually exceded some informations on the tech sites.

AUTHOR

Dense

8 years agofrom somewhere in a concrete jungle, hugging a green plastic tree, and wondering what happened

Everything should remain the same: boot menu order, other programs you have installed, etc. :)

Some settings, you may need to reconfigure.

Check out the new Oneconf - for saving your settings; it's an early days version, btw.

I have been triple booting Windows XP, Windows 7 and Ubuntu for a while now. :)

azrash

8 years ago

this a really good guide!! Ive been searching for this for few days and i bumped into your guide. Kudos on your great job!

One question though, im dualbooting Win 7 and ubuntu 10.04, will my grub order/files/setting be affected if I upgrade to 10.10 using this method?

Thanks man!

Caveman

8 years ago

@Dense: Okay I get it. Sorry I didn't read the comments above. It seems that I had the same issue with chartist.

I still need to download 350MB worth of packages before I can upgrade to Ubuntu 10.10 =(..

Thanks man!!

AUTHOR

Dense

8 years agofrom somewhere in a concrete jungle, hugging a green plastic tree, and wondering what happened

@Caveman: You will still need minimal internet connection as Ubuntu will prompt you to at least update your current version before downloading the cd. That's why the article is titled "... For PCs With SLOW Internet" as you will still need an internet connection. Please read my last few replies in comments, beginning with my reply to chartist. :)

Caveman

8 years ago

I followed your steps, Distribution Upgrade shows up but it still prompts me to download packages from the Internet. Any suggestions?

AUTHOR

Dense

8 years agofrom somewhere in a concrete jungle, hugging a green plastic tree, and wondering what happened

10.10 is supposed to be faster, as Ubuntu has been tweaking the boot-up time since version 10.04. But it also depends on your hardware. Some people have already experienced the faster speed, but I am yet to notice any improvement since version 10.04. On the other hand, the latest beta causes my Ubuntu to be unable to shutdown in 2 of my installations. -_-

Beta is (not always) fun. ;D

Ola

8 years ago

Is 10.10 faster? Seems like ubuntu i just getting slower with each new version..

Ola

8 years ago

Any idea if 10.10 is faster? Seems like ubuntu is getting slower with each new version..

AUTHOR

Dense

8 years agofrom somewhere in a concrete jungle, hugging a green plastic tree, and wondering what happened

Hi Sergey! Are you talking about upgrading from 9.04 to 9.10 or 10.04 to 10.10?

If you're talking about 9.04 to 9.10, after that you will still need to upgrade from 9.10 to 10.04, and in a month's time 10.10, each of them at least 700MB.

Assuming that this is the case, I would prefer to start afresh from 10.10 beta. :/

It's better to use the newer versions of Ubuntu, like 10.04 as they're more stable and less likely to give you sound card problems, for example.

Sergey Pisarchik

8 years ago

I was trying to update from 9.04 to 9.10.

I’ve downloaded alternate installation CD (approx 700 MB)

During Installation process I had some differences.

First, I was recommended to up_to_date my Ubuntu. So, I've agreed.

Second, in "Do you want to start the upgrade?" dialog I've received 4 paragraphs (not 3, like on picture). And the second one was telling that I'll have to download 1045 MB of new packages. My home traffic is limited... Is there any solution not to download 1GB of data?

AUTHOR

Dense

8 years agofrom somewhere in a concrete jungle, hugging a green plastic tree, and wondering what happened

You're welcome, chartist! ;)

chartist

8 years ago

thank you Dense for your fast reply, i think i'll do your advise and wait for official release 10.10

AUTHOR

Dense

8 years agofrom somewhere in a concrete jungle, hugging a green plastic tree, and wondering what happened

@chartist: This solution is actually for PCs with SLOW internet. If without internet, try doing a Google search for: "Ubuntu upgrade without internet", which is a bit like what HomeUser commented above. It is probably easier to start anew with 10.10. After 10.10, hopefully, OneConf, the new single configuration settings, can help make the next transition easier. :)

chartist

8 years ago

i try to upgrade ubuntu from 10.04 to 10.10 but it require a ineternet connection so what is the solution please

AUTHOR

Dense

8 years agofrom somewhere in a concrete jungle, hugging a green plastic tree, and wondering what happened

You're welcome, richie! Glad to know that it helped you. :)

richie

8 years ago

thank u sooooo much. actually the problem with my connection was not spped, but its intermiitency. download managers can take care of that problem, but not in the case of upgrade. this info helped me much. thank u once again

AUTHOR

Dense

8 years agofrom somewhere in a concrete jungle, hugging a green plastic tree, and wondering what happened

@WadEmber

Hi, thank you for pointing out that I have both cdrom and cdrom0 in the guide. When I first started the article, they can be used interchangeably but since 10.04 (I think), this is no longer true.

I only realize this when I have to follow my own notes recently which explains why I am thanking you now. ;)

The article has been updated to reflect this.

AUTHOR

Dense

8 years agofrom somewhere in a concrete jungle, hugging a green plastic tree, and wondering what happened

The easiest way is probably to install a new version of Ubuntu 10.04 rather than the upgrade version.

Rahul

8 years ago

Hey I am using Mint 8

I have mounted Ubuntu 10.04

Nothing happens after step 2. No window pop up.

I tried gksu "sh /cdrom/cdromupgrade" but still nothing happens.

Please help

AUTHOR

Dense

8 years agofrom somewhere in a concrete jungle, hugging a green plastic tree, and wondering what happened

@Hsn:

Thanks for the feedback on 10.10. Haven't try it myself. Will try to wait for Beta or at least until I can fight the temptation no longer. Must resist! ;)

Hsn

8 years ago

i just start upgrading my ubuntu using your guide

am upgrading from 10.04 to 10.10 Alpha 1

and it works

thanks

pivi

8 years ago

Its really helpful for me, Thank you very much

AUTHOR

Dense

8 years agofrom somewhere in a concrete jungle, hugging a green plastic tree, and wondering what happened

@blahhhh:

I am not sure what your problem is but it sounds to me like a connection problem. Have you tried getting a friend to download it for you from a different location? Since you have already tried the torrent, you can also consider getting the regular .iso file from your school if you haven't done so.

There is a 0% method if you seach for it - search for 10.04 packages/repository DVD. Hope it helps!

blahhhh

8 years ago

Im having the same problem as rain and abhi :(. It's really strange because I downloaded the torrent at +10Mb/s, that's right +10MB/s. However, i get to the part where it says "Getting new packages" and it goes extremely slow at 10Kb/s and it says "about 1 day remaining" which is ridiculous. I tried upgrading by using the regular update manager but it's still slow. In fact, upgrading any other program from 9.10 goes really slow.

I thought that perhaps it was that the repositories were having huge bandwidth loads from so many people upgrading their systems to 10.04. But it's been over 2 weeks since the release and I'm still having the same download speeds for any kind of upgrade. Nonetheless, my schools bandwidth is overwhelming at 10Mb/s for anything else.

Is anybody else having this problem? And also, is there a 0% internet method of upgrading?

AUTHOR

Dense

8 years agofrom somewhere in a concrete jungle, hugging a green plastic tree, and wondering what happened

Hi guys, I just checked my 10.04 file system and noticed that my cdrom has been relocated to /cdrom instead of /media/cdrom. I don't know if it's caused by any program I installed but if it's moved in 10.04 stable release, you will need to use this path instead:

Just open up Nautilus (file explorer) and verify that cdrom is under /cdrom (File System folder).

Please comment if this helped solve your problem.

rain

8 years ago

Azzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I did as your instruction but nothing happened >"<

I downloaded the file with more than 200kB/s through the torrent (total: 1h) while the updateever manager takes more than 1 days >"<

However, I can do nothing with the iso file that I downloaded >"<

plz help me

WadEmber

8 years ago

I've got a solution to everybody who experiences that nothing is happening after running command 'gksu "sh /cdrom/cdromupgrade"'.

The problem is that the article has an error.

We mounted the ISO file to /media/cdrom0 however the gksu command tries to start the cdromupgrade script from /cdrom.

The correct solution after ALT+F2:

gksu "sh /media/cdrom0/cdromupgrade"

or even simpler:

gksu /media/cdrom0/cdromupgrade

Cheers!

WadEmber from Hungary

abhi

8 years ago

hey

i downloaded alternate install iso. i used gksu "sh /cdrom/cdromupgrade" after which i got the installation menu. But it still uses internet to download new packages. How do i do it without the internet coz the speed is very slow

AUTHOR

Dense

8 years agofrom somewhere in a concrete jungle, hugging a green plastic tree, and wondering what happened

Pls re-read the section that starts with HOT TIP in this article! Also *cough* nkey *cough* ...

CantGetANick

8 years ago

Hey where can i find this wall paper. Plz plz.

colek

8 years ago

nice share

AUTHOR

Dense

8 years agofrom somewhere in a concrete jungle, hugging a green plastic tree, and wondering what happened

I am under the impression there is this time a problem with the alternate disk making off line upgrade impossible.

Whatever I reply on the question if I want to upgrade the packages before installing, the same volume in downloads is announced and the upgrade fails without internet connection.

HomeUser

8 years ago

> After installing Ubuntu 9.10... how to download all the

> patches so I can install them on different Ubuntu 9.10

> without having to download them everytime?

Suppose there is a better official solution but I, in 9.04 and previous versions, do it this way for

Updating a second system one on the same system:

After mounting with mount /mnt/A_Ubuntu in the not yet updated system

(with /mnt/A_Ubuntu in /etc/fstab pointing to the already updated system)

Copy instead of reload

cp -p /mnt/A_Ubuntu/var/lib/apt/lists/* /var/lib/apt/lists/

and linking to directory in other linux

cd /var/cache/apt/

mv archives/ archives_tmp

ln -sd /mnt/A_Ubuntu/var/cache/apt/archives/ archives

/usr/sbin/synaptic & # mark and apply

rm archives

mv archives_tmp/ archives

Suppose the link could stay also if the same method always repeated.

lukmarn

8 years ago

thanx man

SOFTWARE_SS

8 years ago

downloading 700 MB on slow Internet as same as downloading the 9.10 version!! what's the difference??

Mauricio Rodriguez

8 years agofrom Bogota DC, Colombia

Excellent info.

I like to have the complete DVDs so I can learn all distros's packages and features. I cases I need to correct errors from bad installations, wrong changes or linux kernel corruptions in tests environments.

=)

Flood

9 years ago

After installing Ubuntu 9.10... how to download all the patches so I can install them on different Ubuntu 9.10 without having to download them everytime?

AUTHOR

Dense

9 years agofrom somewhere in a concrete jungle, hugging a green plastic tree, and wondering what happened

@Elie:

-try bringing up a terminal and key in:

gksu "sh /cdrom/cdromupgrade"

-If cannot, verify that gksu "/cdrom/cdromupgrade" is in your path

-If still cannot, try restarting the upgrade process

Elie

9 years ago

i'm trying to update from 9.04 to the 9.10 with a CD-ROM

i had the pop menu at first but clicked cancel by mistake oups! after that i didn't have the pop up that says upgrade and tried the alt + F2 but it didn't work

now what???

daud

9 years ago

as our friend mentioned it tough for low speed connection ,

by the way thanks

AUTHOR

Dense

9 years agofrom somewhere in a concrete jungle, hugging a green plastic tree, and wondering what happened

@Charlie. You can also try downloading from a faster computer at work and then copying it to a usb drive to be transferred to your computer later.

Charlie

9 years ago

Downloading at that speed would drive me nuts!

AUTHOR

Dense

9 years agofrom somewhere in a concrete jungle, hugging a green plastic tree, and wondering what happened

@TEXASPHELLABARBER:

Welcome to Hubpages! Get your first hub published as fast as you can. Don't be like me - I sat on it for 3 weeks! :)

TEXASPHELLABARBER

9 years ago

This is a great web site.

free ubuntu now

9 years agofrom http://freeubuntunow.com

Great Hub! Very informative and organized. It's always good to have a copy of Ubuntu, whether it's the live cd or install. I now use Ubuntu full time without Windows and I expect it will save me tons of money in the future.

directsaurabh

9 years ago

But still downloading 700 MB on slow Internet is tough. Anyway nice and informative hub. Thanks and God bless

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